Fundació Catalana de l'Esplai (Fundesplai)

Fundació Catalana de l'Esplai (Fundesplai) is a non-profit organisation born in 1996 with the mission to "educate children and youth, strengthen leisure time centres and Third Sector organisations, improve the environment and promote citizenship and social inclusion with the will to transform society". In 2023, Fundesplai engaged 379.172 participants, including youth, children, families, educators, schools, third-sector entities and public institutions, primarily in Catalonia, of which 114.660 are participants to our school-programs. Our activity, experience in educational innovation and quality products allow us to have a broad and robust educational community. Fundesplai has a solid team of 2.163 volunteers and 13.221 workers (equivalent to 2.591 full-time jobs) specialized in education, emotional and health wellbeing, training, social inclusion, citizen engagement, cultural animation, digitalisation, among others. Fundesplai manages 127 non-formal education centres and participates in over 1.175 formal education centres. Our diverse programs include direct action with children and youth in non-formal education centres, school canteens, extracurricular activities, summer activities, volunteer camps etc., in which life-skills education is a cross-cutting subject. Other activities we carry out is training for formal and non-formal educators; job orientation services for people at disadvantaged situations; social action programs; promotion of sustainable and healthy food; health promotion and addiction prevention programs for children, youth and family and leadership promotion initiatives. Fundesplai also provides support to other Third Sector organisations in the areas of legal, IT, accountability, communication, etc, and we elaborate research and materials on the pedagogical and Third Sector field. In addition, we promote active citizenship and encourage participation among young people and children in educational spaces, as well as promote the right to leisure time of children and young people. Fundesplai is committed to forming alliances and collaborating with other initiatives, civil society organisations and public administrations to contribute to overcoming social barriers and inequalities, fostering the development of a fairer and more sustainable society, promoting a strong Third Sector and values-based education.